Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional soccer league with teams in the United States and Canada. It is sanctioned by the professional divisions of both the United States Soccer Federation (USSF or U.S. Soccer) and the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA), which are both members of FIFA. MLS represents the top tier in the American Soccer Pyramid..
MLS was formed on December 17, 1993, in fulfillment of Alan Rothenberg and the US Soccer Federation's promise to FIFA to establish a "Division One" professional football (soccer) league in exchange for the staging of the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the United States. The league began play in 1996 with ten teams and enjoyed promising attendance numbers in its first season. Numbers declined slightly after the first year, but have increased in subsequent years. The original 10 teams were divided into two conferences: the Eastern Conference (Columbus Crew, D.C. United, New England Revolution, NY/NJ MetroStars, and Tampa Bay Mutiny), and Western Conference (Colorado Rapids, Dallas Burn, Kansas City Wiz, Los Angeles Galaxy and San Jose Clash).
The league was greeted with indifference by the American mainstream as the 1994 World Cup in the United States faded from memory. The early years gave rise to the Bruce Arena-led dynasty of DC United, a championship team in three of the league's first four seasons. It took the expansion Chicago Fire in 1998 to end United's stranglehold on MLS Cup, the championship game which featured several players that would prove to have an impact on MLS and American soccer.
After its first year of play, the league suffered from a decline in attendance. The 1998 FIFA World Cup in France saw the United States men's national soccer team, largely made up of American MLS players, eliminated from the first round and in last place among the 32 participating countries, casting doubt on the level of play in the American domestic league. Some of the survivors of the 1998 roster would, however, join new and upcoming players in the 2002 FIFA World Cup. The league began to market itself on the talents of American players, experienced veterans and fresh talents alike. DaMarcus Beasley and Landon Donovan were making names for themselves in Major League Soccer, while players like Brian McBride and Clint Mathis continued to prove their worth to their domestic and national teams.
2006-present:
The 2006 season confirmed Major League Soccer as a stable product of both American and international soccer. Piotr Nowak, once a Chicago Fire player, managed the All-Star team to a win in the 2006 All-Star Game over Chelsea F.C., while former-Liverpool player Steve Nicol led his team to MLS Cup for the third time in five years. Bob Bradley, whose reputation was scarred by disappointing results when coaching the MetroStars, turned around the second-year Chivas USA, who in their inaugural season finished last among all teams in the league. Among players, Jaime Moreno continued to display his veteran experience, while Christian Gomez and Dwayne De Rosario excelled for DC United and Houston Dynamo, respectively. The Dynamo, who moved from San Jose prior to the season, took the championship in their first season in Houston. The title game featured names familiar to many American soccer fans; Taylor Twellman scored for the first time in three championship games in overtime, while Brian Ching scored the equalizer only moments later, sending the game into a penalty kick shootout where goalkeeper Pat Onstad secured the win for Houston Dynamo.
The 2007 season saw the MLS debut of David Beckham, whose signing has been seen as a coup for American soccer. David Beckham's signing by the Los Angeles Galaxy was made possible by the Designated Player Rule. He has been followed by four more designated players, including Cuauhtémoc Blanco (Club America) to the Chicago Fire, Denilson (Al-Nasr, previously Real Betis) to FC Dallas, and Claudio Reyna (Manchester City) and Juan Pablo Ángel (Aston Villa) to the New York Red Bulls. The Red Bulls' use of two designated players has boosted the club tremendously, with both players already improving the team's on-field performance considerably.
The departure of Clint Dempsey to Fulham, and New York Red Bulls's debut of former United States captain Claudio Reyna, highlights an exchange of top prospects to Europe for experienced veterans to the United States. Several other well-known foreign players have followed Beckham and other designated players to MLS for the 2007 season, including Guillermo Barros Schelotto (to Columbus), Luciano Emilio (to D.C.), Ronald Waterreus (to New York), and Abel Xavier (to Los Angeles Galaxy). Former United States coach Bruce Arena will face his first full season in MLS since leaving DC United to manage the national team, while Taylor Twellman has committed himself in the long-term to the Revolution.
Poor starts to the season for the league's once-considered elite teams have contrasted with strong performances by the likes of FC Dallas and the New York Red Bulls. Toronto FC, the league's newest addition, became the last team in the league to earn a point or score a goal in the 2007 season, until sellout crowds at their new BMO Field helped propel them to two straight victories. In the Western Conference, Dallas and the Colorado Rapids have led the way, ahead of a weak field of teams, including both Los Angeles franchises and Real Salt Lake, the last team in the league to notch a win this season. Recently, after poor starts, the defending MLS Cup Champion Houston Dynamo and the Supporters Cup Champion D.C. United have gone on streaks and returned to last season's form, with the Dynamo going on an impressive shutout run of 7 consecutive games where they have not given up a single goal to their opponents, tallying a league record 726 consecutive minutes of scoreless time.
In the inaugural 2007 SuperLiga, the Los Angeles Galaxy lost 4-3 on penalty kicks after tying CF Pachuca with a last minute bicycle kick by striker Chris Klein. The victory of Pachuca in the $1 million tournament overshadowed the fact that it was the only Mexican team that made it to the second round (3 MLS teams did so-Houston Dynamo, Los Angeles Galaxy, and DC United. ESPN's Steve Davis has declared the first Superliga a success, saying, "First, SuperLiga has been everything its architects could want. The matches have been spirited and tightly contested, spun with quality and layered with just the right amount of acrimony. So the Houston Dynamo, D.C. United, FC Dallas and the Los Angeles Galaxy may have just finished the most meaningful week of matches ever for MLS teams in the month of July". This follows on news that MLS and Primera División de México are considering increasing the size of the tournament from 4 invited teams from each league to eight teams from each league that must fight to qualify for next year's tournament.
Organization
Major League Soccer has been known more for its front office and management dealings than its on-field product. In the off-season, expansion, contraction and rebranding have become buzzwords for the league and its fans. Recently the league has started to focus on improving the quality of play its teams produces on the field via new rules like the Designated Player Rule and through the creation of a league-wide youth development system..
Stadiums
When the league was started, most clubs played in stadiums built specifically for NFL or NCAA (college) football. This was based on the record attendances achieved at the 1994 FIFA World Cup. However, this turned out to be a considerable expense to the league because of modest attendance and poor lease deals. To provide better facilities as well as to control revenue for the stadium, a major goal of MLS management is to build its own stadiums, which are often called soccer-specific stadiums.
Since 1999, the league has seen the construction and completion of six venues specifically designed for soccer. Lamar Hunt broke new ground in this endeavor by financing the construction of Columbus Crew Stadium. The Los Angeles Galaxy followed four years later with the opening of The Home Depot Center in 2003. The new venue played host to two consecutive MLS Cups, until FC Dallas' Pizza Hut Park opened in 2005 and hosted the next two championships. Chicago Fire began playing their home games in Toyota Park in 2006, a venue that witnessed the MLS All-Stars defeating Chelsea F.C. in the All-Star Game, and a US Open Cup championship for the Fire in their first season in the stadium. 2007 saw the opening of Dick's Sporting Goods Park for the Colorado Rapids, and BMO Field for the expansion Toronto FC.
Future plans include new venues for the New York Red Bulls and Real Salt Lake by 2008, while DC United, the Kansas City Wizards, and San Jose Earthquakes are actively searching for ways to finance and build their respective stadiums.
The move to soccer-specific stadiums has been seen by many as essential to building up attendance and fan support for MLS. So far, every club that has built its own stadium has not only seen its game attendance rise, but also has helped MLS to come closer to the ultimate goal of profitability. Thanks to their new stadium, the Los Angeles Galaxy became the first club to make a profit, and were followed in 2006 by FC Dallas. With the league's new TV rights for the 2007 season, several more clubs are projected to be profitable.
Other MLS teams will, in the foreseeable future, continue to play in larger stadiums designed for football. The New England Revolution play in Gillette Stadium, whose primary tenant is the NFL's New England Patriots, and Houston Dynamo play in Robertson Stadium on the campus of the University of Houston. Houston Dynamo has secured an agreement with city officials that has entered them into negotiations to build a soccer-specific stadium in downtown Houston near Minute Maid Park, home of MLB's Houston Astros. The New England Revolution has also expressed interest in securing their own soccer-specific stadium.
Ownership
MLS operates under a single-entity structure in which teams are centrally controlled by the league. In order to keep costs under control, revenues are shared among the league, and player contracts are negotiated by the league.
Some critics have regularly alleged that the league showed preferential treatment to big-market or profitable clubs with regards to player allocation and the salary cap. The league also fought a bitter legal battle with its players over its economic system, but this was eventually resolved with the players gaining some improved benefits in return for accepting the single entity structure. A court had also ruled that even absent their collective bargaining agreement, players could opt to play in other leagues if they were unsatisfied.
The league's controlled costs have attracted new ownership that can put more money into the league and improve it by focusing their money and attention on fewer clubs. Examples include the Anschutz Entertainment Group's sale of the MetroStars to Red Bull, "in excess of $100 million," according to the New York Times. MLS Commissioner Garber said to the Los Angeles Times that "the sale was part of a plan to have AEG decrease its holdings in MLS. We're pushing Hunt Sports to do the same thing."
It appears that Commissioner Garber and MLS management has said it is pushing these changes as part of a new ownership strategy, one in which each owner has a single club, and is better able to focus their resources upon that club, as with the owners of Red Bull New York and Real Salt Lake. Commissioner Garber has stated that having multiple clubs owned by a single owner was a necessity in the first 10 years of MLS, but now that the league appears to be on the brink of overall profitability and has significant expansion plans, he wants each club to have its own owner.
